Below The Headlines — 15
This might be the last time you get this newsletter via Medium. If all goes well, we will be migrating over to Substack. We’ve got a number of complaints from people when they try to view our writing here. You won’t need to do anything and the migration should (hopefully) happen seamlessly.
This week on 1914 Reader, I wrote a bit more about the CBN accounts looking at a 10 year trend and how 2020 was the turning point. I also looked at the newly published labour force survey by the NBS and what was wrong with announcing an unemployment rate of 4.1%.
Inside Nigeria
It’s that time of the year again: “Heineken Lokpobiri, who this week resumed as Nigeria’s minister of state for petroleum, inspected ongoing refurbishment at the two-unit 210,000 Port Harcourt refinery today. “From what we have seen here today, Port Harcourt refinery will come on board by the end of the year,” — Reuters
Nigeria’s Super Falcons are going to be waiting for their money from the NFF for a while, maybe forever: “The money was not given for the welfare of players but for preparing the team. We paid them allowances as per the tournament they participated in. We cannot use the preparation money to pay outstanding of qualifier matches” — Premium Times
A reality of life in the tropics is that it can often be a petri-dish for all sorts of pathogens and diseases that cannot survive in more temperate parts of the world: “The disease that is ravaging ginger farms in southern Kaduna is strange and was noticed in the first week of July and has raised a lot of questions among the farmers.” — Daily Trust
In Bauchi, rain is a terror: “The Caretaker Chairman of Kirfi, Abdulkadir Umar Dewu and the District Head of Kirfi, the Wambai of Bauchi Emirate, Lawan Muhammad Kirfi said that each time the clouds gather and the skies become dark, especially in the late evening, they will never sleep” — Tribune
Claims about how car owners are dealing with the high cost of petrol: “I had to start picking up passengers going to areas along my route on my way to work and back. It hasn’t been quite easy though because some passengers would pick up quarrel for their balance and other little things” — Vanguard
Interview with the incredibly funny Layi Wasabi. The best Nigerian comedy remain the ones that simply replicate real life as closely as possible, nothing extra added: “I think I started to do that lawyer character more because the persona is not just scripting, I’ve now become that guy lowkey” — Guardian
The person who went to deliver the ransom for the wife of a kidnapped RCCG Pastor in Kwara was kidnapped by the kidnappers. The Pastor’s wife was released — Daily Post
“Baba Tede, according to reports, was arrested for allegedly insulting a Muslim cleric simply identified as Alfa Okutagidi. His arrest came a few days after the arrest of a prominent Isese activist, Adegbola Abdulazeez, popular known as Tani Olohun […] He was arraigned for defaming the Emir of Ilorin, Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, and prominent clerics from the state” — Punch
President Tinubu has personally intervened to try to resolve the UAE problem where Emirates Airlines has stopped flying to Nigeria for about a year and Nigerians have been banned from obtaining visas for almost the same time. I pray for a speedy resolution as I have missed seeing Nigerians getting ‘lit’ in Dubai on Instagram — The Cable
Poor child: “Chairman of Arewa Youths Awareness on Leadership and Election in Bauchi State, Khamis Musa Darazo has vowed to rename his 2-year-old daughter after the late mother of President Bola Tinubu if he secures victory at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal” — Vanguard
The Road Transport Employers’ Association of Nigeria, State Park and Garage Cleaners Commercial Bus Ticket, National Union of Road Transport Workers, Lagos State Consolidated Daily Ticket and others have all increased the levies they charge commercial transporters at motor parks — Punch
“The Police Command wishes to state that the Medical Examination carried out on victims who reported cases of mysterious genital disappearance in Nasarawa Eggon, Obi, Lafia and Keffi Local Government Areas of Nasarawa, gave all the victims a clean bill of health” — Daily Post
Outside Nigeria
Traders are buying natural gas from Nigeria (and other countries) and storing them in reservoirs 1 mile underground in Ukraine to stockpile for this year’s winter in Europe — WSJ
The reckoning with Pandemic relief fraud in America continues: “The Justice Department listed a range of fraud schemes, including defendants who were accused of using the money to solicit a murder and individuals who laundered funds by shipping cars to Nigeria.” — NYT
Feature on Burna Boy. That is the ‘abroad’ Burna where he talks in a very distinct manner from the way he talks locally in Nigeria: “But the Nigerian superstar’s all-encompassing sound also falls in line with his larger message: to amplify Pan-Africanism and unify Black people around the world through the rhythms. “They’ve successfully broken us apart, to where many of us don’t even want to identify with each other” — LA Times
Elsewhere, Rollingstone has a more critical review of Burna’s new album which sees through his long-running bullshit act: “Burna Boy seems unable to distinguish criticism from hate, and such surprisingly shallow reasoning threatens to leave a bitter taste at the end of this project. I Told Them… might be a triumphant sonic adventure, but its creator remains stunted, refusing to grow” — Rollingstone
“An Israeli who contracted a rare bacteria in Nigeria was being treated at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, the hospital said on Thursday. The bacteria, Burkholderia pseudomallei, is found in contaminated water and soil” — Jerusalem Post
“A Nigerian man and 13 Thais, who were members of a romance scam gang responsible for siphoning about 800 million baht out of Thailand over a span of three years, have been arrested following police operations” — Bangkok Post
Nneka Okona remembers her father through his love for Agege bread: “But agege bread, the soft, square-loaf bread always found on Nigerian tables at every hour of the day, is one bread I never got to share with him. Along with so many other things he left behind in order to immigrate to the US, this was another casualty — the bread he was raised on” — CN Traveler
Continuing our series on Nigerians who have joined the NFL via Osi Umenyora’s scouting programme with Roy Mbaeteka who is now with the Chicago Bears: “Mbaeteka joked of his family’s NFL knowledge: “They’re watching, but analyzing the game? No. They just want to see you on TV. My brother will try to understand what’s going on, but my mom and my dad… They’re just like: ‘I see you on TV.’” — ESPN
During a panel at the recent G20 summit in India, the founder of Bharti ‘corrected’ the Tolaram CEO who asked if Lagos was safer than Delhi in India using an anecdote about a woman he interviewed for a job: “On a lighter note, I would say that this girl must have been very desperate to get a job to say that she would be safer in Lagos as compared to Delhi. I would not endorse that” — NDTv
The big story of the week was Diezani Alison-Madueke being charged to court in the UK for corruption: “I’ve never stolen Nigeria’s money” — Daily Mail
See you next week
